We’re coming to a close on the Science Fiction Checklist Challenge shortly, but I wanted to make sure there were a few more offerings for the child sci-fi reader out there. Oddly, while children’s fiction is crammed to the gills with fantasy and magic, there’s not much SF on the shelf, especially chapter books, once kids have made their way past all the Star Wars beginning Readers.

For more menacing tales of alien invasion, there’s the clever King Arthur meets spaceships adventure:Project X Calibur, and the ever creepy Animorphs. There’s also John Christopher’s The White Mountains, aclassic dystopian future with the world ruled by War of the Worlds-ian Tripods. Bot Warsbegins with a devastated earth, but this time the invaders are of our own making.

For interplanetary experiences, there’s a whole range of worlds to explore. In George’s Secret Key to the Universe (by Lucy and Stephen Hawking, yes, that Stephen Hawking) a young boy directly explores some of the more amazing known features of space. The Search for WondLa on the other hand, is a lavishly illustrated and completely imaginitive extraplanetary adventure. Then there’s the race against time and memory of The Lost Planet, and Jimbo and Charlie’s unexpected travels in Boom!